Hoosier garners Big Ten award

IU women's soccer senior Kim Grodek was recently named the Big Ten's Offensive Player of the Week. The honor comes as no surprise to her teamates since the Hoosier midfielder scored five goals and tallied an assist in a single weekend of competition in which the Hoosiers brought home the Milwaukee Cup championship.\nIn her senior year of play for the women's soccer team, this is the first time Grodek has earned the honor, and she is only the fifth player in the program's history to garner such accolades. \n"(Being named Offensive Player of the Week) was good because it doesn't happen very often here at Indiana," Grodek said.\nNow she is on a scoring path that could lead to her breaking the IU record for all-time career goals scored in Big Ten matches.\nGrodek and former Hoosier Kris Fosdick have both scored 10 goals each in the Big Ten. If Grodek can keep her scoring streak going, she could very well carve her name in the record books when her career comes to a close after this season.\nEven though Grodek may be etched into a piece of IU women's soccer history, she admitted that breaking the record has never really entered her mind.\n"Well, I never really thought about (breaking the record), but it would be a great honor," Grodek said. "Hopefully I can be lucky enough to keep scoring goals."\nLike most skilled craftsmen in their trade, Grodek got her start playing soccer at a very young age. She first grew interested in the sport after watching her older brothers play competitively. \nHowever, she did not start to play competitively until age 15, when a group of talented players in the Chicago-land area formed a competitive club team. That was when things really began to take off for her soccer career, Grodek said.\nHer club won the Illinois State Cup and went on to the U.S. Regional Tournament. She also led her high-school team to a third-place finish.\nIU coach Mick Lyon said that Grodek's contact with the ball and her knowledge of the game truly set her apart from her teamates. \n"Her ability in striking a ball is very good," Lyon said. "She can strike a ball with pace. She can really bend it. Her connection is always good. She finds the sweet spot on the ball every time she strikes the ball. There's just tremendous power behind her. And then from midfield, she does what we say, she arrives at the right moment." \nBut Grodek also possesses characteristics that will help her to be successful off the field.\n"She's the kind of person you know will be successful in any venture that she goes into after she gets her degree," Lyon said. "That's the kind of the total package she is, and that's tremendous influence for our youngsters on the team." \nFreshman forward Kristin Radcliffe said Grodek has done just that as team captain and the only senior on the squad.\nRadcliffe said that "as a captain she really cheers everyone on and makes everyone get up when they're down, or just keeps pushing people to where they think they can't go, but she makes them get there."\n-- Contact staff writer John Fischer at jbfische@indiana.edu.